THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Museum, thus acknowledging the indebtedness of Americanists 

 to this accompHshed scholar and interpreter of ancient Mexican 

 culture. 



In the introductory pamphlet which accompanies this fac- 

 simile reproduction of the codex, Mrs. Nuttall shows that it was 

 probably one of two native books sent by Cortes from Vera Cruz 

 to Charles V in 15 19. She also shows that the date correspond- 

 ing to 1 5 19 of the Julian calendar occurs in the Mexican picto- 

 graphs, and is precisely that of the year that Cortes landed at 

 Vera Cruz. In a discussion of the contents of the codex, Mrs. 

 Nuttall states that "although beings of celestial descent are some- 

 times figured, it is obvious that the text deals with real persons 

 and is mainly historical. Priests are represented wearing, as was 

 customary, the insignia of some of the chief divinities, such as 

 the rain-god, Tlaloc, or of Quetzalcoatl, yet the text is certainly 

 not of a religious nature." 



She follows out the history of "Lady Three-flint" and also of 

 "Lord Eight-ehecatl, showing in this way the method, at 

 least in part, of reading Mexican pictography, of which this codex 

 is such a beautiful example. With the aid of Mrs. Nuttall's 

 introductory pamphlet, students will be able to get a knowledge 

 of Mexican picture-writing that has heretofore been hardly ob- 

 tainable, and to the liberal patrons of American research who con- 

 tributed to the publication of this valuable codex this Museum 

 is, in common with others, greatly indebted. 



Mrs. Nuttall designates the known Mexican codices as fol- 

 lows : 



I. Vatican Codex No. 3773. 

 II. Borgian Codex. 



III. Bologna (Cospian) Codex. 



IV. Fejervary (Mayer) Codex. 

 V. Laud Codex. 



VI. Bodleian Codex. 



VII. Selden Codex. 



VIII. (a) Becker Codex; (b) Colombino Codex. 



IX. Vienna Codex. 



X. Codex Nuttall. 



35 



